Sick or Hurt? Can't Work? Need a HUG?

May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month (DIAM) and I'm sure you're still worn out from last year's awesome good time.

But seriously, DI is one of the most undersold insurance products out there and for several reasons.

First, unless your employer offers it to you, most people don't go out of their way to find out how to get a policy.  We at Surf Financial go out of our way to help the large number of self-employed secure a DI policy.  Everyone from farmers to chiropractors, accountants to engineers and, yes, even stay-at-home spouses can and should have a disability policy in place.

Another reason why people do not have DI coverage is that many agents don't understand the product well enough to sell it.  It's difficult to explain something that you don't understand.  Luckily, most of our agents know the benefit of disability insurance and would love to help you.

Lastly, many people don't understand the process of getting a disability policy.  Unlike life insurance, where your health is the major thing taken into consideration, DI underwriters need to look at your occupation (some are more dangerous than others) and your income needs.  This is where things get tricky.

In a previous post, I mentioned the M.U.G. (mortgage, utilities, groceries) plan.  Since many people rent, I've changed the mortgage to housing, thus the HUG plan.  What are your monthly bills?  How much would you need if you were sick or hurt and unable to work?  A DI plan can be designed to cover those bills at a minimum.  

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being very important and 1 not important at all, how important is it to you that you can take care of your housing, utilities, groceries and more if you were unable to work due to a sickness or injury?  How important would it be to make sure that your family was able to continue living a "normal" life should something happen to you as a breadwinner.